In large scale photofinishing plants or photo processing labs, the incoming films are removed from their order bags and are spliced together prior to processing into a large roll of typically about seventy-five films. At the time of splicing, the splicing machine applies an identification number to the splice on each film and to its respective order bag in which the film arrived at the lab.
The roll of spliced films is then developed, after which the developed roll is passed through a notcher or notching machine. This notcher scans the image area of the films and determines the center of each image. The machine then makes a small notch in the edge of the film to identify each frame. The purpose of the notch is to allow a subsequent printer to properly position the images of the film for printing of the images.
The next step in the usual prior system is to expose the frames of the developed film onto a roll of print paper. This is accomplished by the printer. The roll of print paper is then developed, and it is inspected for prints that are to be discarded (rejects) and prints that are to be made over to improve quality (remakes). Small black patches of tape usually are placed on the reject or remake prints to later be detected in a print cutter for sorting purposes.
Then, the roll of film, the roll of prints, and the corresponding stack of order bags are delivered to the packaging area of the lab where manual packaging is performed. This step puts the film and prints into the original order bag for return to the customer. A typical packaging material is a paper "wallet" having two pockets, one for the finished prints and one for the developed negatives. This paper wallet is placed in the order bag for return to the location (i.e., drugstore, etc.) where the film was originally left by the customer for developing.
The basic steps involved in packaging are:
1. Cut the prints from a continuous roll of print paper onto which they have been exposed (printed) and developed.
2. Cut into short pieces the roll of films (negatives) from the continuous roll of films into which they were spliced for processing and printing.
3. Check to see if the prints are the ones that match the negatives and if the negatives are the ones that belong to the order bag.
4. Insert the negatives and prints into the wallet and fold it closed.
5. Insert the wallet into the order bag and close its flap.
6. Calculate the price of the order and print it on the bag.
It sometimes is necessary to dispense one or two of the wallets depending on the number of prints (e.g., two sets) made for a given order. It also may be necessary to provide randomly fed wallets with graphics unique to one customer or another.
As noted above, such packaging presently is performed manually, and is a high cost, low productivity, labor intensive bottleneck in photo processing labs.
The invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,061 ("the '061 patent") is directed to a modular packaging system and accessory components which can interface with other equipment in a photofinishing plant or photo processing lab, and which can enable a automatic packaging system to be provided. In order to provide an automatic packaging system and to insure that the proper films and prints go into the proper order bag, as well as perform the other steps involved in packaging, several things must be done upstream of the packaging operation to allow for elimination of the need for a human operator. The invention in the '061 patent involves several concepts in facilitating such an automated packaging system.
A first concept pertains to a print encoding system for simply adding a code to the roll of prints, and which makes it possible to cross-check if the prints being cut by the print cutting portion of the packaging machine belong with the film and order bag being handled simultaneously by other parts of the system. This concept involves selectively punching holes at edges of the print paper to create a simple machine readable code.
Another concept according to the invention described in the '061 patent and which facilitates increased productivity involves the manner in which the prints are cut from the print roll. This concept involves continuously running the print cutting knife to eliminate the problems occasioned by the high mass of the cutting knife as it is periodically started and stopped as has been done in the past. According to this concept, the knife is run continuously and during the time the knife blades are open, the print paper is rapidly accelerated, a punch hole in the print paper is detected, and the punch hole is positioned under the knife before it cuts the print paper. This enables the packaging system to cycle at a very high speed and eliminates the need to start and stop the knife for each print cut.
A third concept according to the invention described in the '061 patent is the provision of an attachment usable with the film printer to make it possible to stop the film splice (between adjacent films) under the field of view of a bar code reader. This allows the bar code to be simply and reliably read in a film transport system in which the film moves in a somewhat irregular jerking motion as each frame of the film is stopped for its exposure onto the print film, and then advanced to the next film frame which may be an irregular distance from the previous frame. This concept also allows the use of a relatively inexpensive bar code reader rather than the very costly and highly sophisticated holographic bar code scanners.
A fourth concept relates to a technique and system for accumulating cut pieces of the film from the spliced film roll. This concept involves a tamper and movable guide means for allowing a cut strip of negatives to be moved into a stack of such strips. This arrangement eliminates the usual sliding of one negative strip onto another Which can result in scratched negatives and other problems. In addition, means can be provided for detecting and diverting leader cut from the film roll.
A fifth concept involves the use of a batch management computer for providing a file of information pertaining to what is happening to each film by receiving inputs from the splicer, printer and other sources.
The '061 patent describes three approaches for encoding the film identification number from the film splice bar code onto the print roll. In the first approach, the two least significant digits of the number are converted to binary and then encoded onto the individual prints of the print roll starting with the least significant digit. As shown in FIG. 4c, this approach will require at most seven prints to encode. In the second approach, all digits of the number are converted to binary, and then encoded onto the individual prints. With a six digit decimal identification number, this approach will require 20 prints to encode the entire number. In the third approach, each digit of the number is individually converted to binary, and then encoded onto individual prints. Since four bits are required to represent each digit, this approach will require 24 prints to fully encode the number.
It is common for a print roll for a particular customer's order to contain up to 72 prints, particularly if the customer has asked for duplicate prints. Because of packaging constraints, it may be necessary to break up the prints into two groupings of 36 prints each, which will be separately packaged. As a result, each grouping of 36 prints must be encoded with the same identification number. The above three approaches do not explicitly provide for encoding different groupings of prints with the same identification number, and therefore may not be ideal for encoding orders having a large number of individual prints.
In addition, the above three approaches advantageously require that the prints for large orders be packaged beginning with the first print in the order. With the above three approaches, if the prints for large orders are packaged beginning with the last print in the order, it will be difficult to split up the prints for separate packaging since all the prints may have to first be packaged so that the film identification number can be decoded. All the prints may have to first be packaged because there is no guarantee that the last prints in the order will be encoded with data for large orders. If an order consists of 36 prints, for example, in the first approach described above, only the first seven prints will be encoded with data; in the second approach described above, only the first 20 prints will be encoded with data; and in the third approach described above, only the first 24 prints will be encoded with data.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 279,463 which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,711 on Jun. 12, 1990 describes an improved method and apparatus for encoding the identification data whereby the film identification number is first encoded onto the prints of a particular customer's order, and if more prints remain than are necessary to encode the identification number, the encoding of the number is repeated. As a result, if the prints are split up into different groupings of an appropriate size for separate packaging, the identification number will be encoded onto and hence obtainable from prints in the different groupings. In addition, for large orders, the prints can now be packaged beginning with the last print in the order, since the identification number can be decided during packaging from only part of the prints.
In addition, the encodings of the film identification number are separated by the encoding of synchronization bits which are distinguishable from the encoded identification number. The synchronization bits enable the different encodings of the film identification number to be distinguished from each other.
The present invention relates to the identification number encoded onto the prints corresponding to a film. In a typical approach, the identification number encoded is the same number as is decoded from the film. A photofinishing packaging system which encodes the same identification number read from a film onto the corresponding prints generated from the film has certain disadvantages, however.
A first disadvantage is that such a system will be unable to uniquely identify the multiple sets of prints generated by running the film multiple times through the printer, which may occur in the event that a problem is encountered in feeding the film through the printer the first time through. In this event, multiple passes will be required with prints being generated at each pass, and it may be desirable to uniquely identify each set of prints.
A second disadvantage is that such a system will not allow a different identification number than that read from the film to be encoded into the corresponding prints so that a number will be available to encode onto the prints. Therefore, such a system may lack a certain amount of flexibility.
A third disadvantage is that such a system will not typically allow an identification number to be encoded onto the prints in the event that the film is unreadable, or at least allow a "no read" indicator to be encoded indicating this.
A fourth disadvantage is that the reading of the film identification number in such a system must take place before the encoding of the corresponding prints. As a result, this limits the relative placement of the components of the system (and therefore the system's flexibility) used to perform the functions of film reading and print encoding.
Accordingly, it is an object of the subject invention to provide an apparatus (and related method) adapted to encode identification indicia onto prints associated with a film splice, which indicia uniquely identifies prints for a particular pass of the film splice through the printer, which indicia is encodable, even though the bar code from the splice may be unreadable, and which indicia is encodable even before the bar code from the film splice is read.